You can find the Team Germany Hat pattern here!

(Although, after watching the Vancouver Olympics, don't you just want be Canadian?!)

The boys love their new team Germany hats!

They've worn them to school every day this week. In fact, one's already gotten lost and found again (losing the hat is actually a true sign of affection, since it means that he's brought it with him to wear at recess and after school activities and only lost it at the bottom of his school locker). The boys are genuinely proud of their hats and I couldn't be more pleased.

I did change the decreases at the top from my first version. The beanie style decreases (paired decreases along four axes) weren't exactly right for the boys. It seemed like their skinny little heads couldn't quite fill out the top of the hats and the decreases looked like points on their heads. So I reworked them as traditional decreases and they fit perfectly now, nice and smooth, just like the luge helmets I was using as a model. It was fun copying the slick design of the athletes' helmets and caps. These were simple to make but just in case there's anyone out there who'd like to make one, I'll save you the time of figuring out the numbers and post a pattern later this week.

My silly boys could not stop from giggling when they faced each other for this photo. Who says the Germans have no sense of humor!

The crocheted monkey earflap hat (pattern here) was way cute even before it got the ears and the flower, but it is crazy cute with them! The Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran was a great choice for the yarn, with a lot of body and squoosh, giving the hat a nice shape in the crochet, and rich colors that look perfect with wee's hot pink jacket.

She loves the hat!

The many moods of monkey: thoughtful monkey (was it don't jump on the bed or jump on the bed?); hiding monkey (hidden monkey, crouching wee one); and everyone's favorite, silly monkey!

As I was taking pictures of wee in the finished hat, an image flashed in my head of a similar picture taken of me around when I was in kindergarten wearing a brown monkey costume for a school festival. I searched through the photo albums and found myself as a little monkey girl.

Aww, it's like the circle of life. Only with monkey costumes.

The first of the boys' German olympic hats is done!

And lookie, here's today's German gold medalist in Super Combined, Maria Riesch, wearing a brimmed version of the German flag cap.

Cool!

PS - The boys are, of course, also Team USA. B was the first one yesterday to run to tell daddy that the US had taken back the lead in the medal count and S has spent the last week learning to play the Star Spangled Banner on his guitar! The recent USA vs. Germany curling match was a real crisis for them until they realized they could just be for whoever wins. Who knew the Germans could curl?

Guess who's leading the Olympic medal count?

I've been watching a lot of Olympics with the boys during vacation week. They loved the snowboard cross and the moguls best so far but have also enjoyed biathlon and curling. The Germans are very good at biathlon and while we were watching Neuner win the gold yesterday, we caught a glimpse of a sea of German fans all wearing super cool German flag hats. (I couldn't find any pictures but they're standard ski hats with flag stripes like in these German luge helmets.) The boys said they liked them and I pounced. Two German olympic hats, coming up!!

It was hard to find just the right yellow, but the Berroco folks came through for me with the perfect golden yellow in their Pure Merino, which also comes in a great true red and super jet black. (Awesome thing about this hat: both of the boys' favorite colors are in the German flag!!) I'm making up the pattern as I go. I want a basic fleece ski hat look, so I went with a hemmed edging and made the hem really deep to keep the boys' ears warm. I'll probably work the decreases like in my Harry Potter House Hats beanie or the snowflake hats I've been making recently. My goal is to have both done in a couple of days so the boys can wear them while they root on the team! (Side note: hubby just ran downstairs to say, "we're ahead!" I don't think he means the Americans.)

Hey, did you like my little hat switcheroo there? I promised progress on wee's new hat and then the boys jump in with hats of their own. Wee's hat is still missing its finishing touches, but here's a sneak preview of the almost monkey hat.

I finished the double pink snowflake hat last week! Wee tried it on while she was playing wii with her brothers and liked it so much she just kept it on. I hadn't even put a pompom on it yet, but before I knew it the hat was tossed in the hats bin by the door and was in regular use. I wanted to snap some more pics for the blog this weekend but now I can't find the darn thing. Ten to one we lost it in the school and it'll be sitting in the school lost and found all this week while the kids have February vacation.

So, as you can see, I stuck with the white snowflakes and the light pink. I liked it (I like pink stuff) and just kept telling myself that the white would stand out more when the entire snowflake was complete. And it does. Obviously we all really liked the hat since wee wore it enough already to lose it! I really do want to try doing the hat one more time though (and I may have to if I don't find it at the school). I loved the suggestion many of you made of leaving out the white entirely and doing the snowflakes in the opposite pink color, ie, light pink snowflake on the dark pink background and dark pink snowflake on the light pink background. The snowflake hat pattern is fun to do, so I'm happy to make another. And for wee and her 4T sized head, I didn't really make any changes to the pattern besides leaving out about half of the plain knit rounds called for between the decrease rounds. (Pssst.... if you want to make this hat and are having trouble getting the chart to print, you can take a screen shot of the pattern page or grab the jpg from me here.)

In the meantime, while the pink snowflake hat is off on school vacation, I guess I'll just have to make wee another hat.

Tune in later this week to see this one all done!

It's true. She likes pink stuff. A lot. So much so that she constantly uses this line to justify all sorts of things like getting her pink nightgown out of the dirty clothes to wear again, having strawberry flavored milk instead of regular milk, wearing her pink sparkly mary janes in the snow, or having some children's tylenol when she's not sick. "But mommy, I like pink stuff."

Since a pink hat is unlikely to harm her in any way, I thought I'd indulge her passion for pink by making her a pink snowflake hat to match her pink winter jacket. I had planned to use pink and green (the lining in her jacket is a fabulous green), but when I did a little practice swatch, I didn't actually like them together in the hat. In the meantime, wee had pulled out several other pink yarns and was playing with them in the living room. I spied a lighter pink that I thought would look nice with the darker one I wanted to use so I instantly decided to do the hat in two pinks.

Now that I'm into the lighter pink, however, I'm not so sure about it. I really like the two pinks together, but I'm feeling like there isn't quite enough contrast between the light pink and the white to show off those beautiful snowflakes. And now I'm thinking about just doing the hat in the dark pink so those snowflakes can really pop and maybe adding a green pompom.

What do you think?

Oooh, love the snowflakes on this snowflake hat! And how 'bout that Maine Coast Blue color, which is almost green and totally fab with the Deep Sea Blue below? This hat came out just as I had imagined it. What a fun and easy little colorwork project!

The only change I made from the pattern was to shorten the top of the hat. It looked too tall in several of the photos I'd seen on Ravelry and as I was working the decreases on the top, I could tell that mine was going that way too. So I worked the decrease round/plain round combination only five times and then just did decrease rounds until I was at the very top. It fits me great - nice and snug and warm - but also sits nicely on wee's little head. (She's a much better model though!)

Which got me thinking that I should make her one of these. She helped me dig through the yarn in my stash to find some yarn that matched her winter jacket perfectly. (The bottom two were the winners!)

She was so excited! One snowflake hat for my little snow flake, coming up!

she's making snow angels in the foyer (in her snowflake pants, of course!)

It's time for a breaky-break from all those stripes! I wouldn't want to knit anything too easy, however. Soooo....

A little stranded colorwork hat - the snowflake hat from Newton's Knitting - is like a mini vacation after dealing with all those balls of yarn in wee's stripy sweater. This hat will be a sample for a stranded colorwork class I'm teaching in March. It's such a lovely, simple pattern, perfect for beginners trying out stranding for the first time. And it makes a gorgeous hat!

I'm right up to the point where the background color changes and will be switching from "Deep Blue Sea" to "Maine Coast Blue". Awesome names, right? The yarn is Julia (from Nashua Handknits), which I totally love. In a perfect world, they'd give you more yardage on the ball, but otherwise the yarn is a dream.

Dream yarn. Fabulous colors. Easy to knit. This project just makes me smile.

A few hours before the big snow came this weekend, I was busy reattaching the straps on wee's snow pants from last year. I bought a size 3 for my then 1 1/2 year-old and she was tall enough then that I was already worried about how they'd fit this year. Sure enough, when we tried them on the now 2 1/2 year-old wee one a couple of weeks ago, there was a good inch wide gap between the two snappy parts of the bib snaps that no amount of tugging could bridge. Hubby examined the straps carefully, looking deep in the snap contraption for a way to save the cash for another pair of snow pants. And after a minute, he said that we could get rid of the plastic piece the top strap was woven through (the one that allows you to adjust its length) and then we could sew the strap straight to the top plastic bit, thereby giving us another inch and half or so of fabric. And by we he meant me.

But, dang it, if it didn't just work! I used my strongest thread (in a, let's call it coordinating, shade of black) and, bob's your uncle, no more giant wedgie, no more tears and no more money spent!

Despite what the calendar says about December 21st being the first day of winter, it's winter here. We had our first snow over the weekend, sending me down to the basement to search for the snow boots and snow pants, which have been packed away since the spring (if winter starts here before the so-called first day of winter on the calendar, it sure as heck doesn't end until well after the "last day of winter"!). Actually, I'd already gone down the night before the snow to get the boots because it was the night before Nikolaus, when St. Nick comes to the houses of German kids and leaves small treats and gifts in their boots.

We had to go out the next morning so when it came time to stomp through the snow, the kids simply pulled the goodies out of their boots and slipped them on! But once the snow season begins, school rules are that kids aren't allowed to play outside at recess anymore unless they bring their snow pants to school. So down I went to the basement again to find the snow pants.

Upstairs, I've been working on a different sort of "snow" pants for wee one.

These are the fabulous Bella pants from Pink Fig. I made a couple of pairs of these in corduroy last winter for wee and they were so cute on her I knew I wanted to make more. This time, I used a fun corduroy fabric with little embroidered snowflakes and sparkles.

So perfect for my girl!

Here she is showing off the back. She likes them waaay better than her genuine snow pants, which she refused to even try on. I had to bribe her with some marzipan (oh, thanks Nikolaus for the marzipan!) just to discover that the old snow pants are too short now. Well, thank goodness these at least fit. 'Cause her boots don't fit either.

Lookie how pretty my lucky beret looks now that it's all done and lying all flat! I've never had a beret that looked perfectly round and beautiful when it was merely sitting on the floor. It seems almost a shame to put my head in it! I really enjoyed this pattern (except the silly knit-it-flat-and-seam-it bit that I ignored). It was super simple and fun. The pattern called for a poofy pompom on the top, which looked good in the picture, but my yarn color choice was perhaps a little unfortunate.

Eggs sunny side up, anyone? I fear that red would look like the cherry on top of a sundae and pink could turn it into a cupcake on my head. Soooo, no pompom for me. S'alright because it looks pretty darned good without one.

And check out how awesome the so-called "wrong" side looks!

I may actually end up wearing it more this way than the other! It's so much softer on this side too, since it's all knit stitches in that yummy Malabrigo.

I probably won't end up wearing it this next way, but it is funny how, if I pull it up just right, it kinda looks like chef's hat.

(Or, I know, could be a chess piece for next Halloween!) Seriously, folks, I love love love the hat. It's soft and warm, goes with everything, is reversible and just a little bit silly.

I've had this misshawklet handspun yarn for a couple of years. I think someone picked it up for me at a craft fair. Maybe even Bazaar Bizarre, but it was so long ago, I've forgotten. I rediscovered this sweet little hank while searching for my lost hat. It is all pastel-y pink and blue with a subtle sparkly fiber too. Fun! And it looked like just the thing for a little hat for my little girl. I wanted to choose a simple pattern that would show off the colors, so I chose the Tweedy Pie hat from the cover of Monkeysuits. Great pattern + great yarn = great hat. Right?

Wee seems convinced, but I'm not. I don't know exactly how to explain why I'm disappointed except to say simply that I kinda liked it better in the hank. When I look at the hat so far, I wish it was just that one bright blue color. Wouldn't that be fab?

I popped out to the yarn store with wee in tow to find a bright blue yarn to make the hat I'm imagining and justify unraveling this one. We spotted some Lobster Sox yarn, dyed in awesome bright-as-a-fluorescent-highlighter colors. I picked up the blue, but wee insisted on green.

Looks like I'll be having some green tweedy pie for Thanksgiving!

Kim Hargreaves sort of dropped off my knitting radar after she started selling her patterns only online in yarn kits, but I spied her new book, Precious, the other day and was left regretting all the beautiful designs I've been missing. I love so many of her sweaters, but I seem to be on a hat kick right now, so I'm getting my Har-groove back with her Lucky beret.

kinda looks like a giant mushroom, doesn't it?

I just love this subtle shade of Malabrigo worsted. It's called "Simply Taupe." Isn't that delightful? I bought the yarn on a trip to Seed Stitch in Salem, Mass back when wee was just a baby and had kept it stashed for a future scarf or hat. But now I'm convinced that all Malabrigo should become hats. Thing is, it just never itches my forehead like so many other wools eventually do. And its tendency to felt makes the hat even warmer. It's perfect!

What is not perfect, however, is that darned silly hang-up the Brits have about knitting everything flat and seaming it. Oh, Kim, seam a beret?! Really?! A little too precious, I think.

I found it!

I'm so happy, I can't hold the camera straight!

On my way to knitting on Sunday, I made a desperate decision to dig through the kids' winter hats & gloves basket ONE LAST TIME and, lo and behold, there was my Malabrigo beret buried at the bottom! I couldn't believe it when I spotted the little bit of light blue stuck inside a handful of red, yellow and black winter wear. I actually gasped. And only partially because of the brown sticky gunk I found on it (which you can see in the above picture and leads me to ask just what the hell else is at the bottom of the kids' winter hats & gloves basket?!). So, it needs a good washing, but first I had to close up that hole I found in it last year. The yarn in one stitch had broken, leaving a dangerous hole, which was thwarted from unraveling in all directions only by the practically felted nature of the 4 year-old Malabrigo yarn. A little duplicate stitch in a similar yarn on the inside did the trick.

seriously, that is a totally different yarn I used - hell, I coulda used it on the front, it matches so well!

And she's back! Now all I have to ask myself is, which of my two favorite hats do I want to wear?

note to self: don't do the plain rounds between the decrease rounds because otherwise your hat will be ridiculous looking and you'll run out of yarn

Because I finished my replacement Malabrigo beret last night! It fits great, now that I've worked out the changes I made (and noted them on my pattern and here for the next time I lose my favorite hat and need to make this pattern again!).

"...the hat came back, I thought she was a goner,
the hat came back, she just wouldn't stay away."

My Malabrigo beret, second version, third try. I still don't know what exactly went wrong with my first attempts to make a replacement for my lost hat. I am equally clueless about what might be so different about this third try, but, for whatever reason, I'm getting a good feeling about this one. It even feels like my old hat in my hands, on the needles. So I'm knitting away, daydreaming about Goldilocks: 'this one is just right.'

I hope it's not just a fairy tale. I don't want to make v 2.4.

'Cause this hat is getting ripped. Here's the very sad story. Wait, knit yourself a hanky first then come back....

Okay, so my favorite knitted hat of all time - my Malabrigo Le Beret has gone missing.

Loved that hat! Loved that yarn! Perfect color, perfect fit. It was the perfect hat. Well, it did have a hole in it after 4 years of wear, but I was gonna fix that, I swear. As I went to pull out the winter wear (hats, gloves, scarves, etc.) I could not find the hat anywhere. THE hat. After going through the various stages of grief - denial took a long time since I kept going back to search through the same spots over and over - I decided to move on and make a new one. I have the pattern still and I even have a skein of Malabrigo. It's not the same perfect sky blue shade that was in THE hat though. And I'd done something with the numbers in the pattern to get it to fit so perfectly, but I didn't jot that down on my pattern. Bugger.

I made several cast on attempts, found a stitch count and needle size I liked and went for it. I knitted away, telling myself that as soon as I finished this replacement hat, I'd find the old one. And then I'd have two! Apparently you can't say that sort of thing out loud and after eight inches of knitting I was punished by having the hat just look horrible and all wrong on me. I think I left out some increases. I think I knit it too tight. I think I jinxed it.

It's time to frog and try again. But first a little whine because I just want my old hat back. Waaaah and ribbit.

One snowman hat and, get this, my twelfth Itty-Bitty Hats hat overall! I can't believe I've made so many of these and there are still more I want to try from the book.

This one was lots of fun. I was amazed at what a difference it made to add the scarf and the black brim of the snowman's hat. It really transformed a cute vaguely penguin-y looking hat into a fabulous snowman-in-a-hat hat. Just to drive the idea home though, I added a little coal mouth. No mistaking that for a penguin!

I think I'll try a Stripey Stocking Cap next! Now to raid the stash for a couple of fun yarns....

Thirty-three degrees outside. Snowflakes falling in the 'burbs. Kids in winter coats on their way to school. Winter's come early. Someone needs a scarf!

Although his hat's still open on the top, so he might still be a little chilly. Gimme a break, I thought I had a few more weeks before snowman (hat) weather!

It's the first day of October and already I can feel the snow coming.

So I'm making a snowman hat (pattern from Itty-Bitty Hats) to help reconcile myself to the inevitable. I've wanted to make this hat for so long. And considering that I have already made eleven hats from this book, I'm surprised I haven't made this one yet! The yarn is Berroco Pure Merino - nice and soft with crisp colors - and as usual, the pattern is amazingly clever. I can't wait to make the cute red scarf to go around the brim!

I've also got plans for scarves and gloves for myself and, of course, more new hats for wee one. After some recent sweater disappointments and a general big project knitting malaise, I'm hoping this can be a new start for me. It's knitting season and it's on!